Management of power consumption is important in electronic devices (e.g., battery-powered devices) such as laptop and notebook computer systems, cell phones, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable media players, remote control units, hand-held devices including video game players, memory device, and the like. Consumers are increasingly demanding that these electronic devices use power efficiently.
However, many electronic devices may be used for a variety of computationally intensive applications such as three-dimensional (3D) rendering and video encoding and decoding, and the like. As a result, such devices can usually be used for limited periods of time.
Power dissipation (P) of a device is dependent on capacitance (C), clock frequency (f) and supply voltage (V), with P=CfV2. The upper limit of the clock frequency is determined by supply voltage. Accordingly, a reduction in the supply voltage results in corresponding reduction in power dissipation. Additionally, reduced supply voltage of a device results in an increase in delay through the device.